TIFF has unveiled its celebrity-packed guest list, including Bill Murray, Robert Downey Jr., Kate Winslet, Denzel Washington, Kristen Wiig, Steve Carell and Tina Fey, plus a world premiere of Roger Waters’ The Wall. Festival Street, a film-themed outdoor fair, will take place on King St. W.

TIFF-bound directors and artists include Roger Waters, David Cronenberg, James Franco, Chris Rock, Mike Leigh, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Alan Rickman, Lone Scherfig, Julie Taymor, Zhang Yimou, Noah Baumbach, Lixin Fan, Mia Hansen-Love, Ethan Hawke, Barry Levinson and many more, all connected with films that will screen at the festival, the complete schedule for which was also released Tuesday.

The presence of Bill Murray means TIFF has landed the world premiere of his new comedy St. Vincent, an eagerly sought property in a very competitive fall festival season. Murray plays a Brooklyn curmudgeon who befriends the 12-year-old son of a single mom (Melissa McCarthy) and incites the lad to mischief. An even bigger feat was inciting Murray to come to TIFF, since he’s very choosy about his public appearances.

“It’s a super fun movie, so we’re thrilled to have it,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF’s artistic director. “I love Bill Murray in just about anything, but this is really one of those roles where it feels like he’s loose and he’s having fun, and it’s the kind of role that we love to watch him in. It reminded me of Rushmore, in a way.”

Sept. 5 has been declared “Bill Murray Day” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox, a free special event awaiting elaboration from the festival.

Ex-Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters is coming full circle by choosing Toronto for the world premiere of Roger Waters The Wall, a film he co-directed with Sean Evans of his four-year global tour, recreating the songs of his former band’s grandest album. Waters began his “The Wall Live” tour in Toronto during TIFF 2010, so the film event will be a homecoming of sorts for him — and Bailey said the rocker is keen to reconnect with Toronto audiences by participating in Q&A sessions.

“The great thing is he’s actually doing it twice: the Saturday night at the Elgin and the Sunday at the Ryerson. He has promised that he will attend both screenings to introduce them and do a Q&A, and he’s very excited about this,” said Bailey. “He’s a rock god and this is an amazing thing.”

TIFF has also nabbed the North American premiere of Winter Sleep, the three-and-a-half-hour-hour drama by Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2014.

“I’m glad we have it as well. It’s an important film, an important filmmaker for sure and we love to have his work here,” said Bailey.

The festival also unveiled details of its new Festival Street initiative, which will see King St. W. from University Ave. to Peter St. turned into a pedestrian promenade and art and music fair during the first four days of the festival, Sept. 4 to 7. Highlights of Festival Street include a photo booth featuring HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, plus strolling characters from various Stanley Kubrick films, aimed at promoting TIFF’s major Kubrick exhibit later this fall.

Festival Street will also include a tribute to NFB animation pioneer Norman McLaren, who would have turned 100 this year. McLaren’s short films will screen outdoors, with original scores written and performed by Toronto avant-garde pop group Absolutely Free.

In all, TIFF will screen 393 films from 79 countries during its 11-day run: 285 features and 108 shorts. That’s about the same number of features as last year, but there’s an increase of 30 shorts, due to the creation of a new international short film program.

The features represent 250 world, international or North American premieres, a slight dip from the 268 of last year. But festival-goers can be sure this year that they are seeing a genuine premiere, not one with “an asterisk,” as Bailey calls it, because TIFF has cracked down on other festivals poaching its premiere status.

Last year’s Telluride Film Festival, for example, scooped TIFF by screening a number of Toronto-bound premieres at its Colorado event, including 12 Years a Slave, the eventual winner of Best Picture at the Oscars.

TIFF has responded with a new rule that all films screening in the festival’s first four days must be either world or North American premieres. The change hasn’t hurt TIFF, Bailey said, because now everybody knows Toronto won’t abide premiere-poaching.

“This year we won’t have that, and it’s a pleasure and it’s comforting and it’s just clearer for everybody. It should be easier,” he said.

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